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The August Garden

SchneiderPeeps - The August Garden

The August Garden in zone 9 is not nearly as pretty as as in some other zones. But that’s ok, we’ve had our time of green and now it’s our time of brown for while. It’s actually been a little cooler than the last couple of summers. We’ve just, within the last 2 weeks, hit the 100 degree mark. We were commenting about how cool it was the other evening and then checked the temperature – it was a cool 86 degrees, at 9pm.

Even though most of our garden is done and we’re cleaning it up to get ready for the fall, there are still a few surprises to found.

August garden

This is a big view of the garden. As you can see, most of our garden is dead or dying. But not this grass, it’s growing pretty good here, since this is the only area we really water.

okra

Our okra is producing. I know many people consider okra fodder, but we love our fried okra. I’m hoping I planted enough this year that we can freeze some for the winter.

seeding basil

Some of our basil is seeding. I just love basil. I’m collecting the seeds to plant next spring all around the garden and chicken coop.

swiss chard growing

The power house greens of  zone 9 has to swiss chard (and kale). This was planted last fall. We’ve kind of ignored it this summer as we’ve been eating summer squash and green beans, but now that those aren’t producing, we’re harvesting the swiss chard again. I just cleaned all the dead bean plants out of this area. You can see how dry it is by the cracks in the ground. I gave the chard a good watering and mulching.

sweet potato vines

This is our sweet pototo patch. Did you know you can eat the leaves? Well, you can; just saute them like spinach.

yellow pear tomatoes

We’re still getting a few yellow pear tomatoes each day. I think this plant will survive until our first freeze and we’ll get another rush of tomatoes once it cools off a bit.

rutger tomotoes

The regular size tomatoes we have left are really small compared to what we were getting in June and July. I think this plant will also make it until the first frost.

chili piquin and rosemary

In front of our well house I planted a small chili pequin plant and some rosemary two years ago. They are doing great. In fact we picked about half the ripe pepper just the day before this photo was taken. See that dry brown grass, that’s what the rest of my yard looks like  :-(.

moringa

My morninga trees are doing wonderful. These are not the original ones I had, our neighbors rabbits ate those. No, I grew these from some pre-germinated seeds I bought from Blue Yonder Urban Farms.

Pecans

The pecan trees are doing pretty good. I forget to water them most weeks, so I’m pretty happy to see that they have pecans.

fig bud

This is our knee high fig tree….with a fig bud! Figs are normally ripe in our area around July 4th. So, I have no idea what will happen with this little fig.

plumeria

After 3 years our plumeria is finally blooming. Carl bought this for me after my dad passed away and my kids were excited about having a “cigar” plant. We told them it was a plumeria, not a cigar plant??? They said that my dad had one with a few cigar butts in the pot and when they asked about it, he told them he put them there so the plant would grow him some more cigars. So even though we all know this is a plumeria, we all call it the cigar plant.

What’s growing in your garden? Please tell me about it in the comments, feel free to leave links if you have photos of your garden, so I can see some green. 

TGN-2 (1)

If you need help keeping track of all your gardening plans and notes, you might want to check out The Gardening Notebook.

This post is shared at The Homestead Barn Hop, Maple Hill Hop, Tuesday Garden Party,Green Thumb ThursdayThe HomeAcre Blog Hop

Thanks for sharing with your friends!

tessa

Wednesday 3rd of September 2014

Thanks for linking this to Green Thumb Thursday! Doesn't August just take it out of you?! You've stared the canning season but the growing season isn't done and by Halloween, you've just had it!! Love your update!

Angi Schneider

Thursday 4th of September 2014

Yep, it does.

sonia

Monday 18th of August 2014

My chickens ate out a lot of my plants. I made the mistake of letting them run around free willie in our small yard. They have a big run. I had gotten a late start this year. First time garden. But I have hundreds of unripened pear tomatoes..wondering if they will ever ripen. Had at least 8 serpent striped cucumbers, some small tomatoes. My herbs had done very well. Im in zone 9 also..we have had a wonderful summer. So this last couple weeks has been like wow. Im going to tear my beds up..just the ruined plants. Im going to replenish the soil and plan for next spring with a better crop..and use the square foot method. Im going to get take classes to be a herbalist. So one bed will be for herbs specifically. Have a great week!!!

Angi Schneider

Monday 18th of August 2014

It's so exciting when your garden goes well. What a wonderful first experience. Since you live in a zone 9, did you know that you can probably keep your garden going all year? When it cools off a little you should be able to plant all kinds of things like greens, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, onions and garlic. The last two won't be ready until next summer but the rest should grow all winter.

Rachel E.

Monday 18th of August 2014

Love to read updates on gardens. Your garden reminds me of mine...loaded with healthy grass. I had the hubby pull the tractor rake to pull up all the grass and weeds. It pulled all my top soil too. Ugh! Well, I have to try to work the land as much as possible this week to get the fall crops in. I had to pull out my cucumbers because the squash bugs moved to those and destroyed them in one week. I was out with my son yesterday squashing them all with a vengeance . He sucked them up with a vacuum, dumped them out in a pile and stomped them. Pretty good, right? Hahah.

Anyway, I have several watermelon and cantaloupe, but fear those bugs we missed headed straight on over to them. Not cool. My new crop of beans and peas are poking up. Happy for that. I still need one more row of peas. Carrots, kale, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower are next. As well as a batch of spinach.

Angi Schneider

Wednesday 20th of August 2014

lol...yes, it is loaded with healthy grass. I'm really hoping it will be woodchip walkways one day. I'm proud of you for squashing those bugs!!! Sounds like you're going to have a great fall garden.

daisy

Monday 18th of August 2014

You still have a lot going on! I'm so envious of your pecan trees! If you haven't yet tried pickled okra, I highly recommend it. I have a recipe on the blog. Enjoy the rest of summer!

Angi Schneider

Wednesday 20th of August 2014

I'm so happy to have the pecan trees. When we bought the property there were two mature trees. I've learned that this variety only produces every other year so we'll need to harvest enough for two years. I'll have to look at your pickled okra recipe. Thanks for the suggestion.